Joseph Bonanno

Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. (January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002) was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family.

Early life

Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno was born on January 18, 1905 in Castellammare del Golfo, a town on the northwestern coast of Sicily. When he was three years old (1908), his family moved to the United States and settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn for about 10 years before returning to Italy (1918). Bonanno slipped back into the United States in 1924 by stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa, Florida. By all accounts, he'd become active in the Mafia during his youth in Italy, and he fled to the United States after Benito Mussolini initiated a crackdown. Bonanno himself claimed years later that he fled because he was ardently anti-Fascist. However, the former account is more likely, since several other Castellammarese mafiosi fled to the United States around the same time.

Eventually, Bonanno became involved in bootlegging activities, and soon joined a Mafia family led by another Castellammarese, Salvatore Maranzano.